His North American career did not start so auspiciously. In his first month with the team, he had only one goal, three points, and 22 shots in eight games.

After that slow start, Sivak's production picked up with a statistical jolt. In 24 games through November and December, he scored 10 goals, had 25 points, and took 92 shots. In January and February, he had 16 goals, 20 points, 109 shots in 23 games. During his first two months in the league, he took a paltry 12 penalty minutes, not bad for a player expected to score and stay out of the box. Since then, his penalty minutes have gone down even more, to just 12 minutes in 40 games, including a penalty-free February.

News that I completely missed last week: Sena Acolatse is back in the Worcester lineup, has been since March 1st. I may be inattentive but I think that is exciting, awesome and a good thing for the Sharks.

Worcester only played two games since last Monday, a relatively leisurely schedule for the AHL. Saturday, Sebastian Stalberg scored the only first period goal to give the Sharks the lead over the Providence Bruins. The Sharks had a fair chance to take a two goal lead when James Livingston was awarded a penalty shot but Bruins' goalie Niklas Svedberg stopped that. The Bruins came back in the second to score two power play goals and take the lead away. A couple of minutes later, James Livingston tied the game back up. In the third, the Bruins retook the lead and it wasn't until 19:00 of the regulation that John McCarthy tied it again. The game went to a seven-round shootout that the Bruins won with goals from Craig Cunningham and Trent Whitfield. The one Sharks shootout goal was scored by Denny Urban.

The Worcester Sharks had a lukewarm weekend. Perhaps it was closer to tepid. They lost two of three games in three days. Friday they played at Providence, scoring first but losing 3-1. That first goal was a short handed tally by Marek Viendensky, at 19:15 of the second period. It held up until the mid-point of the third period when the Bruins tied the game. The Bruins scored two more in the last three minutes of the third, including an empty netter. The final SOG count was 23-19 Bruins, Alex Stalock made 20 saves.

The Worcester Sharks started the weekend badly but it ended well. Friday they lost at home, 7-2 to the Manchester Monarchs. Worcester goals were scored by Matt Tennyson (PPG, Irwin, Kearns) and Jon Matsumoto (Kearns, Doherty). Harri Sateri made 24 saves on 31 shots. The power play went 1/3, the penalty kill 4/5. Everyone who suited up for the Monarchs scored, so I'm going to skip them. (Not really, only 1/3 of them not counting the goalie, and even he got an assist. I'm still skipping them. If you really must see the scoring carnage, go to the AHL site.)

As mentioned, things got better from there, with the Sharks winning Saturday 4-1, again at home, this time against the Portland Pirates. Worcester goals were scored by: Danny Groulx (Tennyson, Oleksuk), Bracken Kearns(13) (SHG, McCarthy), Jimmy Bonneau(1), Matt Tennyson(5) (Livingston, Viedensky). Worcester's power play was an abysmal 0/6, but their penalty kill was perfect at 6/6. Stalock made 36 saves for the win. His shutout was spoiled in the third period by Portland's Phil Lane(5) (Klinkhammer). For Portland, Mike Lee made 11 saves on 14 shots, and Louis Domingue made 22 saves on 23 shots.

The Worcester Sharks played three road games last weekend, but only won one. Friday, their seven power plays went scoreless against the Springfield Falcons (AHL affiliates of the Blue Jackets). The Sharks killed seven of eight penalties. The lone goal for the Sharks was scored by Daniil Tarasov, with assists to Danny Groulx and Adam Comrie. It was Tarasov's fifth of the season. Harri Sateri made 27 saves on 29 shots. LW Tommy Grant and defenseman Denny Urban were second to Tarasov in shots on goal, with four each.

Saturday, the Sharks traveled to Glenns Falls to play the Adirondack Phantoms (AHL affiliate of the Flyers). They came away from that with a 3-2 win. They scored on one of their two power plays, and killed four of five penalties. Sharks goals were scored by Jon Matsumoto (PPG, Kearns, Urban), John McCarthy (Hamilton, Viedensky), and Freddie Hamilton (Groulx, McCarthy). Alex Stalock made 26 saves on 28 shots for the win.

Last week, the Worcester Sharks played two games in Newfoundland against the Ice Caps. The Sharks won both games, 3-2 and 4-0.

Tuesday's game was a nail-biter. Daniil Tarasov opened the scoring at 1:32 of the first with assists from Tim Kennedy and Bracken Kearns. The Sharks gave up a short-handed goal to Jason Jaffrey (assist to Maxime Macenauer) in the middle of that period. Then the teams went scoreless through the second, each team taking an assortment of penalties. At 6:31 of the third period, Jaffrey scored a power play goal for St. John's (assists to Raymond Sawada and Derek Meech). The Sharks didn't get that goal back until 16:42, with a power play goal from Bracken Kearns (assists to Tim Kennedy and Denny Urban). Less than two minutes later, Tarasov scored the game winner with 1:31 left in the game (assists to Kearns and Kennedy). The Sharks scored on one power play out of three and they killed four of five penalties. Harri Sateri made 30 saves for the win, Eddie Pasquale made 29 saves for the Ice Caps.

The performance of the Worcester Sharks recently inspired one of their close observers to tweet this:

@210Darryl: I think it's time for some changes for the #WorSharks...this team has way too much talent to be playing this poorly.

The Worcester Sharks only played two games last week, due in part to the AHL All Star break. The first game was Friday in Portland, against the Phoenix Coyotes' AHL affiliate the Pirates. They lost in a shootout, with goals from Tim Kennedy (PPG, assists to Tarasov and Kearns) and Daniil Tarasov (assists to Urban and Kennedy). It was Kennedy's 13th goal of the season, Tarasov's 3rd. Harri Sateri stopped 28 shots before the shootout, where he was beaten by the Pirates' Chris Brown. Worcester's power play went 1/9, their penalty kill was 6/7. Goals for the Pirates were scored by Rob Klinkhammer (assists to Lane and Sinkewich) and Ethan Werek (PPG, assists to Klinkhammer and Summers). Pirates goalie Mike Lee made 36 saves for the win.

Friday, January 25: The Worcester Sharks defeated the Springfield Falcons 3-1 in Springfield. The Falcons' Scott Howes opened the scoring at 3:07, with assists to Brian Helmer and Andrew Joudrey. Tommy Grant, acquired by San Jose in the Brandon Mashinter trade, tied the game just over a minute later with an unassisted short handed goal. It wasn't until the mid point of the second that James Livingston scored to give the Sharks a lead. The lone assist on his goal went to John McCarthy. Early in the third, Daniil Tarasov scored a power play goal, with help from defensemen Danny Groulx and Denny Urban. Harri Sateri made 21 saves for the win, Worcester finished with 18 shots on goal.

Saturday, January 26: The Worcester Sharks hosted the Providence Bruins in Worcester's final game before the AHL All Star break. The game went to the seventh round of a shootout, with the Bruins picking up the extra point for a final score of 4-3. The Bruins scored three goals in the first period, leaving the Sharks to crawl back from a two goal deficit through the rest of the game. According to Darryl Hunt, the game should not have made it to overtime:

I attended the Bulls game as a ticket holder last Sunday with a bunch of friends. We had a wonderful time, though watching the Bulls get beaten by Bakersfield put a damper on it. I went ahead and bought an orange hoodie. I don't buy much fan gear but I can always use another hoodie. I spent yesterday afternoon curled up in a blanket wearing that hoodie watching Chicago beat the Kings before NBC let me watch the Flyers lose. On my way to SF, I got to listen to Worcester lose to the Booshed-up Phantoms too. I started the day in a bad mood, those games did not help.

The Bulls went to Stockton Friday with a revamped roster, working four new players into the mix. They play Stockton again today, making three in a row against the same team. The new Bulls lost that first game to Stockton. The team wasn't all there though: Scott Langdon, Alternate Captain and much relied-on defenseman, was serving the second of a two game suspension. His absence was felt. For the second game in a row, goalie Taylor Nelson was pulled after a brutal quartet of goals against, to be replaced by Bryan Hince. For a more thorough review of that game, I refer you to someone who was there: Paul Gackle.

Saturday, Taylor Nelson started in goal again. Curcio put Galiardi, Sivak and Dean Ouellet on a line together again. Morrison, Trudeau and Christian Ouellet made up another line. The change Curcio did make was to go with five defensemen instead of six. That made sorting out the pairings a little difficult for me, like guessing a 5-digit lock combination. Likewise the lower forward lines, with two additional players to rotate in... I was at a loss to keep track. It didn't matter. The Bulls had their game on last night.

The names of the players on the mostly final Sharks roster are out there by now. By association, the names of the players who were sent back down are also known to Sharks fans: John McCarthy, Bracken Kearns, Matt Pelech, and Matt Tennyson. The Worcester Sharks are playing right now. Listen in here.

Yesterday a Worcester player was sent down to the ECHL: Sacha Guimond. He had been called up from the Bulls, but due to a recent trade involving the Bulls captain Justin Bowers and the rights to Guimond, the young defenseman won't be coming back to San Francisco. Instead he's going to play with the Gwinnett Gladiators, to hone his skills and await another shot at the AHL. Because he was originally a Bulls prospect and not a Sharks prospect, he could in theory be called up by any team. He was in Worcester on a PTO.

That has to be frustrating. There you are, working away, trying to do a good job, feeling like you're part of the team, there's laughter and uniforms and a budding understand of how things work. Busy busy busy you are, so busy you have no idea how you ended up wrapped around that stanchion. You suppose it must somehow be your fault, you should have seen it coming, did someone push you there? And where did that blood come from? Is it pumping or merely seeping?

About Petshark: Talking Stick

Native of Northern California. Hockey fan since 1998... sort of... there's a hiatus in there that I still can't explain.

I want to know about anything and everything related to the sport and the spectacle. I watch, I react, I write it down.

My interest in the Sharks was initially a matter of geographic convenience and regional loyalty because that seemed to be how it worked. I had no prior interest (at all-- AT ALL) in professional sports of any kind. When I met hockey, it might have set off a chain reaction of general sports fandom. It hasn't, I don't think it will. At all.

Since then, that interest developed into full blown (mostly sort of usually almost completely) exclusive loyalty to the Sharks.

I started blogging a couple years ago on wordpress. I still occasionally put things there that I don't think fit here because they are not about the Sharks. Wherever my words wander, here on Kuklas Korner, they will (usually) hang on to a teal thread.

I can be found in cyberspace on Twitter @petshark47, or emailed at talkingstick@petshark.net